Abstract
Youth with callous-unemotional (CU) traits are at high risk for aggression and antisocial behavior. Extant literature suggests that CU traits are related to abnormal autonomic responses to negatively-valenced emotional stimuli, although few studies have tested autonomic responding specifically during social interactions. To address this knowledge gap, the current study tested whether CU traits were related to autonomic activity, assessed via respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), during several parent–child interaction tasks designed to provoke negative emotion. The sample was 162 clinically referred youth (M age = 12.03, SD = .92; 47% female). Using piecewise latent growth models, we estimated individual differences in RSA during three semi-structured social interaction tasks (reading aloud to a parent and research assistant; a recovery period from the reading task; and a parent–child conflict discussion) and tested whether CU traits were related to patterns of RSA responding across tasks. Overall, youth showed expected RSA decreases during the reading period, increases in RSA during recovery, and further decreases during the conflict discussion. However, youth with clinically-elevated CU traits had a different pattern of RSA change across tasks, such that CU traits were related to significantly less RSA change during reading and recovery. Findings suggest that less RSA engagement during social interactions and less RSA recovery may be a biomarker of CU traits. Future research is needed to examine whether this inflexibility contributes to the development of CU traits beginning early in childhood.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Three participants had missing data for the PPVT. These assessments were invalid due to lack of child engagement at the baseline assessment. Subsequently, we completed an alternative assessment (the Expressive Vocabulary Test [EVT]; Williams, 1997) which yielded valid scores (based on participant engagement) of an estimated IQ above the cutoff. Given that the PPVT and EVT are different assessments, we elected to be more conservative and coded the baseline PPVT score as missing for those participants.
References
Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. S. (1983). Manual for the Child Behavior Profile and Child Behavior Checklist. Burlington, VT: Author.
Baroncelli, A., Roti, B., & Ciucci, E. (2018). The associations between callous-unemotional traits and emotional awareness in youth. Personality and Individual Differences, 120, 247–252.
Beauchaine, T. (2001). Vagal tone, development, and Gray’s motivational theory: Toward an integrated model of autonomic nervous system functioning in psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 183–214.
Beauchaine, T. (2015). Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia: A Transdiagnostic Biomarker of Emotion Dysregulation and Psychopathology. Current Opinion in Psychology, 3, 43–47.
Beauchaine, T., Bell, Z., Knapton, E., McDonough‐Caplan, H., Shader, T., & Zisner, A. (2019). Respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity across empirically based structural dimensions of psychopathology: A meta-analysis. Psychophysiology, 56, e13329.
Beauchaine, T. P., Katkin, E. S., Strassberg, Z., & Snarr, J. (2001). Disinhibitory psychopathology in male adolescents: Discriminating conduct disorder from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder through concurrent assessment of multiple autonomic states. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 610.
Bedford, R., Pickles, A., Sharp, H., Wright, N., & Hill, J. (2015). Reduced Face Preference in Infancy: A Developmental Precursor to Callous-Unemotional Traits? Biological Psychiatry, 78, 144–150.
Bentler, P. M. (1990). Comparative fit indexes in structural models. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 238.
Berntson, G. G., Bigger, J. T., Eckberg, D. L., Grossman, P., Kaufmann, P. G., Malik, M., & Molen, M. W. V. D. (1997). Heart rate variability: Origins, methods, and interpretive caveats. Psychophysiology, 34, 623–648.
Bird, H. R., Gould, M. S., Rubio-stipec, M., Staghezza, B. M., & Canino, G. (1991). Screening for Childhood Psychopathology in the Community Using the Child Behavior Checklist. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 30, 116–123.
Browne, R. J., & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. Testing Structural Equation Models (pp. 136–162). Sage.
Byrd, A. L., Vine, V., Beeney, J. E., Scott, L. N., Jennings, J. R., & Stepp, S. D. (2020). RSA reactivity to parent-child conflict as a predictor of dysregulated emotion and behavior in daily life. Psychological Medicine, 1–9.
Calkins, S. D., & Keane, S. P. (2004). Cardiac vagal regulation across the preschool period: Stability, continuity, and implications for childhood adjustment. Developmental Psychobiology, 45, 101–112.
Cecil, C. A. M., McCrory, E. J., Barker, E. D., Guiney, J., & Viding, E. (2018). Characterising youth with callous–unemotional traits and concurrent anxiety: Evidence for a high-risk clinical group. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27, 885–898.
Collins, L. M. (2006). Analysis of Longitudinal Data: The Integration of Theoretical Model, Temporal Design, and Statistical Model. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 505–528.
Cui, L., Morris, A. S., Harrist, A. W., Larzelere, R. E., Criss, M. M., & Houltberg, B. J. (2015). Adolescent RSA Responses during an Anger Discussion Task: Relations to Emotion Regulation and Adjustment. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 15, 360–372.
de Wied, M., van Boxtel, A., Matthys, W., & Meeus, W. (2012). Verbal, Facial and Autonomic Responses to Empathy-Eliciting Film Clips by Disruptive Male Adolescents with High Versus Low Callous-Unemotional Traits. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 40, 211–223.
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, D. M. (2007). PPVT-4: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Minneapolis, MN: Pearson Assessments.
El-Sheikh, M. (2005). Stability of respiratory sinus arrhythmia in children and young adolescents: A longitudinal examination. Developmental Psychobiology, 46, 66–74.
El-Sheikh, M., & Hinnant, J. B. (2011). Marital conflict, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and allostatic load: Interrelations and associations with the development of children’s externalizing behavior. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 815–829.
Fanti, K. A., Demetriou, C. A., & Kimonis, E. R. (2013). Variants of Callous-Unemotional Conduct Problems in a Community Sample of Adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42, 964–979.
Fanti, K. A., Eisenbarth, H., Goble, P., Demetriou, C., Kyranides, M. N., Goodwin, D., & Cortese, S. (2019). Psychophysiological activity and reactivity in children and adolescents with conduct problems: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 100, 98–107.
Fortunato, C. K., Gatzke-Kopp, L. M., & Ram, N. (2013). Associations between respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity and internalizing and externalizing symptoms are emotion specific. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 13, 238–251.
Fowles, D. C. (1988). Psychophysiology and Psychopathology: A Motivational Approach. Psychophysiology, 25, 373–391.
Frick, P. J. (2004). The inventory of callous-unemotional traits. Unpublished Rating Scale.
Frick, P. J., Ray, J. V., Thornton, L. C., & Kahn, R. E. (2014). Can callous-unemotional traits enhance the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of serious conduct problems in children and adolescents? A comprehensive review. Psychological Bulletin, 140, 1.
Gatzke-Kopp, L. M., Willner, C. J., Jetha, M. K., Abenavoli, R. M., DuPuis, D., & Segalowitz, S. J. (2015). How does reactivity to frustrative non-reward increase risk for externalizing symptoms? International Journal of Psychophysiology, 98, 300–309.
Gerbing, D. W., & Anderson, J. C. (1992). Monte Carlo Evaluations of Goodness of Fit Indices for Structural Equation Models. Sociological Methods & Research, 21, 132–160.
Hastings, P. D., & Kahle, S. (2019). Get Bent Into Shape: The Non-linear, Multi-system, Contextually-embedded Psychophysiology of Emotional Development. In V. LoBue, K. Pérez-Edgar, & K. A. Buss (Eds.), Handbook of Emotional Development (pp. 27–55). Springer International Publishing.
Hinnant, J. B., & El-Sheikh, M. (2009). Children’s Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms over Time: The Role of Individual Differences in Patterns of RSA Responding. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 37, 1049.
Hyde, L. W., Waller, R., & Burt, S. A. (2014). Commentary: Improving treatment for youth with callous-unemotional traits through the intersection of basic and applied science – reflections on Dadds et al. (2014). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 55, 781–783.
Jones, A. P., Laurens, K. R., Herba, C. M., Barker, G. J., & Viding, E. (2009). Amygdala Hypoactivity to Fearful Faces in Boys With Conduct Problems and Callous-Unemotional Traits. American Journal of Psychiatry, 166, 95–102.
Kahle, S., Miller, J. G., Lopez, M., & Hastings, P. D. (2016). Sympathetic recovery from anger is associated with emotion regulation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 142, 359–371.
Kaufman, J., Birmaher, B., Brent, D., Rao, U., Flynn, C., Moreci, P., & Ryan, N. (1997). Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL): Initial Reliability and Validity Data. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 980–988.
Kazdin, A. E., Whitley, M., & Marciano, P. L. (2006). Child–therapist and parent–therapist alliance and therapeutic change in the treatment of children referred for oppositional, aggressive, and antisocial behavior. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 436–445.
Kimonis, E. R., Frick, P. J., Skeem, J. L., Marsee, M. A., Cruise, K., Munoz, L. C., & Morris, A. S. (2008). Assessing callous–unemotional traits in adolescent offenders: Validation of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 31, 241–252.
Lorber, M. F. (2004). Psychophysiology of Aggression, Psychopathy, and Conduct Problems: A Meta-Analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 531–552.
Miller, J. G., Chocol, C., Nuselovici, J. N., Utendale, W. T., Simard, M., & Hastings, P. D. (2013). Children’s dynamic RSA change during anger and its relations with parenting, temperament, and control of aggression. Biological Psychology, 92, 417–425.
Miller, J. G., Nuselovici, J. N., & Hastings, P. D. (2016). Nonrandom Acts of Kindness: Parasympathetic and Subjective Empathic Responses to Sadness Predict Children’s Prosociality. Child Development, 87, 1679–1690.
Mills-Koonce, W. R., Wagner, N. J., Willoughby, M. T., Stifter, C., Blair, C., & Granger, D. A. (2015). Greater fear reactivity and psychophysiological hyperactivity among infants with later conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 56, 147–154.
Moore, A. A., Rappaport, L. M., Blair, R. J., Pine, D. S., Leibenluft, E., Brotman, M. A., & Roberson-Nay, R. (2019). Genetic underpinnings of callous-unemotional traits and emotion recognition in children, adolescents, and emerging adults. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60, 638–645.
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998). Mplus User’s Guide (7th ed.). Muthén & Muthén.
Pang, K. C., & Beauchaine, T. P. (2013). Longitudinal patterns of autonomic nervous system responding to emotion evocation among children with conduct problems and/or depression. Developmental Psychobiology, 55, 698–706.
Patriquin, M. A., Lorenzi, J., Scarpa, A., Calkins, S. D., & Bell, M. A. (2015). Broad implications for respiratory sinus arrhythmia development: Associations with childhood symptoms of psychopathology in a community sample. Developmental Psychobiology, 57, 120–130.
Porges, S. W. (2007). The polyvagal perspective. Biological Psychology, 74, 116–143.
Porges, S. W., & Furman, S. A. (2011). The early development of the autonomic nervous system provides a neural platform for social behaviour: A polyvagal perspective. Infant and Child Development, 20, 106–118.
Ram, N., & Grimm, K. (2007). Using simple and complex growth models to articulate developmental change: Matching theory to method. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 31, 303–316.
Rivenbark, J. G., Odgers, C. L., Caspi, A., Harrington, H., Hogan, S., Houts, R. M., & Moffitt, T. E. (2018). The high societal costs of childhood conduct problems: Evidence from administrative records up to age 38 in a longitudinal birth cohort. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 59, 703–710.
Robinson, M., Doherty, D. A., Cannon, J., Hickey, M., Rosenthal, S. L., Marino, J. L., & Skinner, S. R. (2019). Comparing adolescent and parent reports of externalizing problems: A longitudinal population-based study. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 37, 247–268.
Shader, T., Gatzke-Kopp, L., Crowell, S., Reid, M., Thayer, J., Vasey, M., & Beauchaine, T. (2018). Quantifying respiratory sinus arrhythmia: Effects of misspecifying breathing frequencies across development. Development and Psychopathology, 30, 351–366.
Sharf, A., Kimonis, E. R., & Howard, A. (2014). Negative Life Events and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among Incarcerated Boys with Callous-Unemotional Traits. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 36, 401–414.
Tabachnick, A. R., Moore, C., Raby, K. L., Goldstein, A., Zajac, L., & Dozier, M. (2020). Respiratory sinus arrhythmia as a moderator of early maltreatment effects on later externalizing problems. Development and Psychopathology, 1–11.
Thomson, N. D., & Centifanti, L. C. M. (2018). Proactive and Reactive Aggression Subgroups in Typically Developing Children: The Role of Executive Functioning, Psychophysiology, and Psychopathy. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 49, 197–208.
Tobia, V., Bonifacci, P., Ottaviani, C., Borsato, T., & Marzocchi, G. M. (2016). Reading under the skin: Physiological activation during reading in children with dyslexia and typical readers. Annals of Dyslexia, 66, 171–186.
Viding, E., Sebastian, C. L., Dadds, M. R., Lockwood, P. L., Cecil, C. A. M., De Brito, S. A., & McCrory, E. J. (2012). Amygdala Response to Preattentive Masked Fear in Children With Conduct Problems: The Role of Callous-Unemotional Traits. American Journal of Psychiatry, 169, 1109–1116.
Vine, V., Victor, S. E., Mohr, H., Byrd, A. L., & Stepp, S. D. (2020). Adolescent suicide risk and experiences of dissociation in daily life. Psychiatry Research, 287, 112870.
Wagner, N. J., Hastings, P. D., & Rubin, K. H. (2018). Callous-Unemotional Traits and Autonomic Functioning in Toddlerhood Interact to Predict Externalizing Behaviors in Preschool. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 46, 1439–1450.
Wagner, N. J., & Waller, R. (2020). Leveraging parasympathetic nervous system activity to study risk for psychopathology: The special case of callous-unemotional traits. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 118, 175–185.
Wagner, N., Mills-Koonce, R., Willoughby, M., Propper, C., Rehder, P., & Gueron-Sela, N. (2017). Respiratory sinus arrhythmia and heart period in infancy as correlates of later oppositional defiant and callous-unemotional behaviors. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 41, 127–135.
Waller, R., Gardner, F., & Hyde, L. W. (2013). What are the associations between parenting, callous–unemotional traits, and antisocial behavior in youth? A systematic review of evidence. Clinical Psychology Review, 33, 593–608.
Waller, R., Hyde, L. W., Klump, K. L., & Burt, S. A. (2018). Parenting Is an Environmental Predictor of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Aggression: A Monozygotic Twin Differences Study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 57, 955–963.
Waller, R., & Wagner, N. (2019). The Sensitivity to Threat and Affiliative Reward (STAR) model and the development of callous-unemotional traits. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 107, 656–671.
Waller, R., Wagner, N. J., Barstead, M. G., Subar, A., Petersen, J. L., Hyde, J. S., & Hyde, L. W. (2020). A meta-analysis of the associations between callous-unemotional traits and empathy, prosociality, and guilt. Clinical Psychology Review, 75, 101809.
Williams, K. T. (1997). Expressive Vocabulary Test Second Edition (EVTTM2). 6.
Acknowledgements
Research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH101088; F32 MH110077; T32 MH018951; K01 MH119216). The authors thank all the families who took part in this study and the MoodY study team, which includes research assistants, interviewers and their supervisors, data managers, student workers, and volunteers. The authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest.
Funding
Research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH101088; F32 MH110077; T32 MH018951; K01 MH119216).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics Approval
All study procedures were approved by the Human Research Protection Office (HRPO) and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) pediatric practice-based research network.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest.
Consent to Participate
Youth and their parents provided written informed consent and were compensated for their time.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Perlstein, S., Waller, R., Wagner, N. et al. Autonomic Nervous System Inflexibility During Parent–child Interactions is Related to Callous-unemotional Traits in Youth Aged 10–14 Years Old. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 49, 1581–1592 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-021-00849-2
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-021-00849-2